［May 2018］
31 –International Exchange in Local Governments – A Year of Local Governments in Japan

Governor of Okayama Prefecture, Mr. Ryuta Ibaragi, and Okayama prefectural government staff visited South Australia this May to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Sister State relationship between Okayama Prefecture and South Australia and CLAIR supported their activities (we will talk more about this in our next issue).

CLAIR facilitates the international activities of Japanese local governments, gathers information on local development efforts of other countries and helps communicate the Japanese local government system to the world.

Our Sydney office supports Japanese government officials in Australia and New Zealand by facilitating visits and exchange programmes, liaising between local governments and researching local government systems for the benefit of Japanese prefectures and municipalities.

We now have 109 sister city relationships with Australia which includes 6 sister state-prefecture relationships and we also have 43 sister city relationships with New Zealand. The largest number is with the US, the second with China, the third with Korea, with Australia coming in fourth and New Zealand in tenth.

Japan ranks first in terms of the number of sister city relationships it has with Australia and New Zealand. We are very proud and happy of this fact.

The historical trend in the number of sister cities between Australia and New Zealand with Japan increased dramatically in the 1990s. That was when Japanese local governments were getting more and more engaged in international activities. Proof of this increased international engagement can be seen through the commencement of the JET programme in 1987 and the establishment of CLAIR in 1988.

I would like to add that CLAIR Sydney is able to facilitate the creation and maintenance of strong sister city relationships with the help of Sister Cities Australia (SCA) and Sister Cities New Zealand (SCNZ). We are grateful for their continued support and look forward to continue working together in the future.

Katsunori Kamibo

Director